Generally, electrophoresis is used to separate complex substances into their component parts by using procedures based upon the migration of electrically charged fractions in a direct current electric field. Previously, this has usually been done using a one-dimensional system in a support medium such as polyacrylamide gel with the addition of denaturing agents, such as SDS or urea, which provides a separation based on mass or on a mass-to-charge ratio.
Typical prior publications describing the one-dimensional technique include the following:
T. P. Karpetsky et al, "Use of Polynucleotide/Polyacrylamide-gel Electrophoresis as a Sensitive Technique for the Detection and Comparison of Ribonuclease Activities", (1980) Biochem. J. 189, 277-284; C. W. Wilson, "A Rapid Staining Technique for Detection of RNase after Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis", (1969) Anal. Biochem., 31, 506-511; C. Wilson, "Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of corn ribonuclease isoenzymes", (1971) Plant Physiol., 48, 64-68; L. C. Van Loon, "Polynucleotide-acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis of Soluble Nucleases from Tobacco Leaves", (1975), FEBS Lett., 51, 266-269; E. J. Zollner et al, "Human Serum Deoxyribonuclease Assay in [.sup.3 H] DNA-polyacrylamide Gels without Staining Artifacts" (1974), Anal. Biochem 58, 71-76; J. B. Boyd and H. K. Mitchell, "Identification of deoxyribonucleases in polyacrylamide gel following their separation by disc electrophoresis", (1965 Anal. Biochem. 13, 28-42; A. Blank and C. A. Dekker, "Ribonucleases of human serum, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, and leukocytes. Activity staining following electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels", (1981) Biochemistry 20, 2261-2267.